Process for treating sea urchin tests



United States Patent PROCESS FOR TREATING SEA URCHIN TESTS Ernest Toms and Eva Mae Toms, Pacific Grove, Calif.

No Drawing. Application March 1, 1954, Serial No. 413,476

4 Claims. (Cl. 117-3) This invention relates to processes for treating seaurchin tests to render them translucent and to develop latent color patterns therein and to the products of such processes.

It has heretofore been proposed to polish and treat the shells of the Phylum Mollusca to produce articles of commerce such as buttons, mother of pearl and the like. Thepresent invention relates to the treatment of tests not from the Phylum Mollusca but from the Phylum Echinodermata which latter Phylum includes the sea urchins. More particularly this invention relates to processes for treating sea urchin tests to render these tests translucent and to develop latent color patterns to produce articles of commerce of great beauty and utility suitable, among other purposes, for use as lamp shades and the like.

The structure of the tests of the Phylum Echinodermata is so entirely distinct from the structure of the tests of the Phylum Mollusca that processes for treating Mollusca tests would be entirely useless when treating Echinodermata tests and the knowledge and practices developed in the former art are in no way applicable to the latter art as will appear more fully hereinafter.

Sea-urchin tests are formed of a great many calcareous plates fused together into a partially flattened globe. These plates are arranged in ten clearly defined sections or bands extending from the aboral area or top smaller hole down to the oral area or mouth on the under side of the test. Five narrow bands of ambulacral plates containing multiples of small holes through which the tube feet of the sea urchin extend alternate with five broader interambulacral bands of plates which contain no holes. The arrangement of these .two series of plates provide an appearance much like the meridian lines of a globe of the world. A multitude of knobs cover the shell symmetrically and are the bases for the spines or needles of the sea urchin when alive.

The sea urchin shell in its natural state is opaque and if the sea urchin is removed from the shell and the shell illuminated from within without treatment no light is transmitted through the shell. When the sea urchin shell is treated in accordance with the present invention it becomes translucent and light originating within the shell passes through the interambulacral sections and issues from the holes found in the ambulacral areas. Further, the tests so treated developed a latent color pattern which when illuminated is extremely pleasing to the eye and the resultant product is one of great beauty and utility.

The latent color pattern of the sea urchin tests varies with the individual tests. The colors may range from a light almost colorless shell-like appearance to a deep garnet-red. The color will vary in accordance with the thickness of the walls of the test so that the color is darkest and most intense directly beneath the knobs of the shell and progressively lightens between the knobs. This results in a jewel-like efiect when the treated test is illuminated from within.

, In accordance with one embodiment of our invention, described below to illustrate the same, sea urchins as taken from the ocean are boiled in water containing an alkali metal carbonate or bicarbonate such as bircarbonate of soda. This initial boiling of the sea urchins strips the exterior of spines and the interior of the sea urchin organs. The tube-feet filling the perforations in the ambulacral plates are also removed by this treatment.

The tests are now a dingy brown color and are then bleached in a dilute solution of a suitable bleaching agent such as sodium-hypochlorite. The bleaching of the tests changes the before-described dingy brown color to a chalky appearance but apparently does not affect the latent color paterns in the tests which our invention preserves and enhances.

The tests are then removed from the bleaching solution and are thoroughly washed in clear water and are dried. After drying the tests are somewhat opaque and are of a markedly chalky appearance with no color patterns visible.

The dried tests are now treated to render them translucent by dipping them in parafiin wax, clear lacquers,

shellacs, hard waxes, or synthetic or natural resins which have previously been heated or dissolved where necessary in a suitable medium to render them liquid for dipping the tests until the tests absorb as much of the wax, lacquer,

shellac or resin as is possible and the entire test is permeated and saturated therewith throughout the entire wall structure. The latent color patterns of the tests are now visible. When a test is illuminated from within, as by an electric light bulb or the like, all of the latent color of the test is revealed in its ultimate beauty and this color pattern is combined with the complementary exterior design of the test to provide an entirely novel decorative and useful article of commerce suitable for many types of illuminating purposes and uses.

It should now be apparent to those skilled in the art that by the present invention we have provided a novel process for treating the tests of the Phylum Echinodermata which results in a novel and useful product not heretofore known.

Changes in or modifications to the above-described illustrative embodiment of our novel process may now be suggested without departing from the present inventive concept and reference should be had to the appended claims to determine the scope of the same.

What is claimed is:

1. In a process for treating sea urchin tests of the Phylum Echinodermata the steps of boiling the sea urchins as they come from the sea in a solution containing an alkali'metal carbonate, bleaching the tests in a solution containing a bleaching agent, washing and drying the tests, and then uniformly saturating and permeating the tests with a liquid solidifiable light transmitting medium.

2. A process as described in claim 1 in which the alkali metal carbonate is sodium bicarbonate.

3. A process as described in claim 1 in which the I bleaching agent is sodium hypochlorite.

4. A process as described in claim 1 in which the alkali metal carbonate is sodium bicarbonate and the bleaching agent is sodium hypochlorite.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. IN A PROCESS FOR TREATING SEA URCHIN TESTS OF THE PHYLUM ECHINODERMATA THE STEPS OF BOILING THE SEA URCHINS AS THEY COME FROM THE SEA IN A SOLUTION CONTAINING AN ALKALI METAL CARBONATE, BLEACHING THE TESTS IN A SOLUTION CONTAINING A BLEACHING AGENT, WASHING AND DRYING THE TESTS, AND THEN UNIFORMLY SATURATING AND PERMEATING THE TESTS WITH A LIQUID SOLIDIFIABLE LIGHT TRANSMITTING MEDIUM. 